Peep Show star Robert Webb has given a frank portrayal of growing up in rural Lincolnshire - and his emotions surrounding the death of his mum and being "physically disciplined" by his dad.

The comedian, who grew up in Woodhall Spa and went to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in nearby Horncastle, was on ITV's Loose Women to talk about his book How Not To Be A Boy, which details his childhood in the county.

And his appearance revealed details about the tragedy of losing his mum to a terminal illness when he was 17 and how he and his two brothers were physically punished by his father, who had a "functioning dependency" on alcohol, he said.

Speaking to a panel including Janet Street Porter, Birds of a Feather's Linda Robson and The Only Way is Essex's Fern McCann, the dad-of-two talked candidly about his upbringing and the importance of men opening up about their feelings.

Read More

"My mum died when I was 17... she died in 1990, so I've had 28 years to get used to the idea, but it was really a question of finding a decorum for the reader, because you feel this duty of care," he said.

"What felt particularly cruel about it was that I was 17 and we were just starting to have that grown-up relationship, talking to each other as friends, and that's when she disappeared. That felt a bit mean."

The way his mother's illness was broken to him by his father was very matter-of-fact, he said.

"It was a typical bloke's way of dealing with a thing, which was: 'OK, here's the bad news and now we're going to move onto the practicalities'.

"I came home and really only saw my dad at Christmas and birthdays (after his parents divorced when he was five). I knew my mum was ill but didn't know exactly how ill.

Read More

"My dad and step-dad were around the kitchen table and my dad had had a couple of drinks and he said 'right, boy, your mum's poorly - it's terminal. Now, Derek...' and he started talking to Derek about getting a cleaner in."

He spoke to his mum and said he "didn't trust himself" to tell her he loved her without crying so asked her if she was surprised he was a virgin - a subject that was bothering him at the time as many of his friends had girlfriends.

She told him that he would catch them up and 'overtake them in everything'.

He was then asked about details in his book about being beaten by his father, who died in 2013.

"This is the 70s and 80s - he's a working class bloke in Lincolnshire and he wasn't doing anything that was out of the ordinary," he said.

"(He had) a functioning dependency (on alcohol) - I can't remember a day when he didn't have a drink.

Read More

"He had three boys and he punished them physically when they stepped out of line. That's my memory.

"My brothers are much older than me and they sort of knew the rules and they knew that when they stepped out of line, certain consequences would happen, but for me it was a bit more terrifying because I didn't really know what the rules were."

He said the relationship with his father had 'mellowed' with age, adding that he and his brothers took a very different view of parenting to him.

"That cycle has been broken completely," he said.

"My dad's father was a disciplinarian whereas me, Mark and Andrew would not dream of laying a finger on our children. So that's over."

He also talked about the importance of men speaking about their feelings, and said that three out of four people who commit suicide in Britain are men.